Debating between getting an unpowered mill or just replacing with Beans, help me decide.
Posted by chuckisduck@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 58 comments
I visited the LDS Pantry to switch over to long term grains and bought unmilled flour. I opened a can to check using the coffee grinder to mill the flour.
I am debating on buying an unpowered economical mill that would only be used in emergency or switch to more beans to replace the unmilled berries.
Looking for a suggestion of what mill to buy or switch back to beans, thanks.
IrwinJFinster@reddit
I black fridayed a hand mill for around $30.
OtherwiseAlbatross14@reddit
Be sure to report back when you try it out and find out how much it sucks.
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
It works but takes 3 times to make close to flour.
Using a paddle drill on the end that I have makes it easy. Hand cranking sucks but works.
The only problem is that the milled flour will get everywhere. The solution was to attach it to my work bench and use a clean 5 gal bucket with a plastic sheet covering it on a stool.
Cleaned it up, dried and put it back in a bag with dessicant.
Would I mill with this every day? no
Does it work for emergency? Yes
Having Beans, Rice and Oats means not to solely rely on this.
IrwinJFinster@reddit
Once the zombies come, and I’m down to grinding my seed corn in desperation, you’ll be the first person I meshtastic.
OtherwiseAlbatross14@reddit
Not testing your equipment is worse than not having it at all because you would make other plans if you didn't think you'd be able to mill wheat.
SwiftResilient@reddit
Hahaha
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
Looking at one of the Corona ones.. will probably test on the rest of the berries in the can.
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
FWIW, I know several who originally went with the cheaper mills & even after multiple passes through the cheaper "Monkey Mills" the final product did not equal the single pass result from a quality manual grain mill (Country Living, Diamant, etc).
Also the manual effort required to grind a cup of flour with the cheaper mills is intense.
All that being said, even though a quality grain mill infrastructure is rather expensive, the money you can save over a lifetime of breadbaking (pizza, pasta, etc also) is substantial. Also there is NO comparison between the amazing taste of freshly freshly ground, freshly baked bread items vs store-bought in a wrapper...as well as the nutritional value of freshly ground wheat flour vs white flour.
Add to that wheat (stored properly) is shelf stable for decades.
TrilliumHill@reddit
Oh man, you sold me with the amazing taste line, and I didn't even know I wanted a mill.
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
I have 2 Country Living Grain Mills w/ accessories, an electric Grainmaster Whisper Mill, Bosch Mixer, pasta makers, wood fired pizza oven, bread cloches, etcetera...
I literally had to stop baking bread because it simply was too dang tasty for my diet. 🤣
My Sourdough Stromboli was addictive! 😬
TrilliumHill@reddit
The only thing you're missing is a friend like me 😜
My wife does a lot of baking, but I still do the noodles and pizza. You've never had pizza until you've had it with mozzarella made earlier that same day.
I think the next thing on my list is to get goats, lots of work for that though, pen, fencing, cheese cave... I have always liked the idea of being self reliant, but it's a lot of work, and our land is just not a good fit for growing grains. Never thought about just buying the berries in bulk though. You've given me some ideas
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
Well, my wife might say I am full of it!
Sure she meant ideas...right? 😏👍
TrilliumHill@reddit
Oh absolutely! My wife thought I was crazy for wanting a saw mill, guess who has a list of things for me to build now?
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
One of my 1st major purchases that got serious wifee pushback....until...
https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/s/t67zxsl3oK
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
Nice, I had to wait until an ice storm until I got the ok to get a gen and we got one of the last at Costco. First time was filling NG tanks, stupid suicide plugs and trying to balance the 120 loads.
Second time I piped in NG and kept about 20 gal of propane as backup and a homemade interlock on a split panel.
Replaced panel myself and have a bigger gen that can do 9000 w continuous with NG and printed instructions with pictures in case I am not home.
Still getting vetoed on solar. I have a small 200w system with a battery by the dock for lighting it but nothing fancy.
I would like a small 5kw array with about 20 kwH battery backup. We have the money, but the other half hates "clutter".
TrilliumHill@reddit
Wow, solar and prepping just go hand in hand, it even saves money. I don't understand why people are against it. Almost everything we have is electric, my entire shop is off-grid. My truck can power our house for over a week, and that's not including what our panels make. We'll be breaking ground on a new house next spring and my goal is to be able to go off-grid in winter with minimal impact to lifestyle. Right now that goal is to use wood for heat exclusively and limit driving into town to once a week.
The more self sufficient you are, the less you have to prep
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
👍😎👍
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
Nice setup
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
ecojourney@reddit
Is there a good FAQ (frequently asked questions) on dry food storage long term? types of preferred containers and sealing them properly for example, what to add to the foods, if anything, to prolong storage life?
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
I am not LDS, but they have volumes of info on Long Term Food Storage.
Frequently Asked Questions https://share.google/J4g8UjuJUtn7oJ6dd
I used to go with the Diatomaceous Earth method (along with heat sealed mylar bags along with oxygen absorbers inside 6 gallon buckets), but now simply buy Augason Farms Wheat in their easier to stack & store pails.
ecojourney@reddit
Thanks very much! This is exactly what I need. I have a lot of questions and these resources will be very useful. I assume you would need food grade diatomaceous earth if you were going to use that. I have a bag of it and think it is for insect deterrent in the garden only.
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
At the time, I used food grade DE.
ecojourney@reddit
Thanks. Good to know it exists.
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
Great stuff! The wife hates cooking or even me cooking (absolutely hates messes/clutter) so me milling last weekend missed her off, or I would love to have a nice mill.
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
The amazing smell of fresh baked bread throughout the house might change her mind! 😏👍
ResolutionMaterial81@reddit
Finallyawake451@reddit
Just use oatmeal and hulled hemp seed 1:1 mix and you have all you need for a long time. All you need is water and some sugar.
HamRadio_73@reddit
Start with a manual mill. They work in power outages.
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
Looks like I will get a Corona and try from there.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Read my caution about the Corona and knockoffs...
Also, it does more of "cracking" than milling per se.
The Back to Basics mill is around the same price and does a lot better job.
SwiftResilient@reddit
Thanks for posting this, I wanted an economical mill and was steered away from the Corona due to concerns about it's flour milling. Do they still manufacture the back to basics ones? I can only find used
JRHLowdown3@reddit
I have no idea, it's been about 30 years since I bought mine ;) I can't remember who actually manufactured or distributed them. If any place was still carrying it I would check Emergency Essentials in UT.
Fun_Journalist4199@reddit
I’ll warn you that a corona mill will not produce actual flour, it’s more like cornmeal. It would be tough to bake actual bread with.
You will need a stone grinder mill if you want flour anything like commercial flour
Financial-End2144@reddit
Wheat's the move. More options, lasts forever. F beans. Manual mills tho? The cheap Amazon ones are a joke. Your arms will die trying to grind daily. Srsly, not worth it unless you knead, what, a cup? Those things are just for decoration. Country Living is it. That's the real deal for milling. Used ones are out there. Just do it.
SnooLobsters1308@reddit
/shrug, who knows WHAT the PAW will really look like. But, its likely someone in USA will still be able to grow wheat, and a mill might come in handy. I'd get the mill.
MrD3a7h@reddit
Forgive my ignorance. What does PAW stand for in this context?
SnooLobsters1308@reddit
Sorry, ya, PAW = post apocalyptic world. Preppers mostly prep for "short term" disasters, often called "prepping for Tuesday", disasters that actually happen, 1 to 3 weeks no power sometimes with evacuations happens in USA a few times a year, ice storms, hurricanes, tornado, wildfire, flood, house fire. (house fire is 300K times a year folks could use a BOB ....) 3 day power outages are very common. Short term loss of job, etc. are all Tuesday events.
You probably don't NEED to grind your own flour for bread to feed your family in most Tuesday events of a week or so local only disaster.
Many will also prep for long term events ... these are often "doomsday preppers", prepping for the PAW, or long term very major disasters like CME (solar coronal mass ejection) disrupts power to the whole country, nuclear war, financial market collapse / another great depression, pandemic that wipes out much of the population, or etc. etc. MOST of these scenarios a wheat grinder would be great tool.
Typical prep progression is prep for 3 days, 3 weeks, then 3 months, then 18 months plus (to hopefully get to some next harvest season). 3 days, 3 weeks is Tuesday prepping, no services / no groceries for a year in the USA is doomsday prepping, and 3 months no groceries in the USA is LIKELY a doomsday event too.
Prep first for Tuesday, THEN doomsday. :) Of course, most (not all) of the doomsday preppers are already prepped for most Tuesday disasters ....
Decent-Apple9772@reddit
“Post apocalyptic world” it is not a common acronym.
Some people just like being twats with their little in “clubs” of this or that acronym.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
It's more commonly used than the "tuesday" BS used here in "little clubs" ;) Hell, at least PAW makes sense, "tuesday" makes no frickin sense.... Just say "short term" or "72 hours until fema rescues me" instead.
PAW- in other words, a truly eff'ed up world with real wide spread catastrophe.
"Tuesday"- in other words, my cat ran out of kitty litter, but I had an extra bag because I'm so prepared for everyday situations. Or what everyone else on the planet considers just standard ADULTING....
AdEmotional8815@reddit
Also good for grinding corn type stuff:
JRHLowdown3@reddit
"Unmilled flour?" You mean Wheat?? Your coffee grinder may have a time with these, seek a proper mill.
Back to basics mill is the classic inexpensive option. Corona mill is another one but be sure it's not a chinwachoo knockoff- years ago all the new "preppers" bought these from harbor freight and the few that actually used them often found all kinds of crazy metal shit flaking off in their grains!!! We have an actual "Corona" brand one and it does not do that but the knockoffs do.
Or just cut right to the chase and buy a Country Living with the power bar. Buy at least one of the spare parts kits with it- the "key" for the wheel is hard to duplicate locally. We lost ours in 2001 and it took a few years to find the proper one, thankfully we had several other options.
For electric, the K-tec is nice. We have an alternate energy system so this is an option for us.
grumpletoe@reddit
I have a manual mill for emergencies, but I use my high power blender to 'grind' most of the time. Just blend on high for 40 seconds or so. The manual mill will be a lot of work if we have to use it all the time, but we would get used to it.
ecojourney@reddit
With the steel grinding plates you can grind sesame seeds and turn them into butter (tahini) which will help diversify your protein sources; hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts too & peanuts. This will enhance protein sources by allowing you to add these butters to other dishes when adding whole nuts or seeds would not be palatable.
drifter5@reddit
Congrats! you find the way to fix your problem, bur I still want to ask if you use unpowered economical mill will this waste too much time rather than use electric machine?
Mountain_Answer_9096@reddit
I have a hand powered Schnitzer mill. Produces about 100g per minute and isn't difficult to operate.
Doesn't heat the grain during use. There's only two of us here so it's plenty for us
mildlyornery@reddit
How long you really think you can go without civilization and logistics? I give it about a month before I go feral.
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
I really think of the 2-3 disasters we can have here and have supplies for 3 months.. really it's more to share if needed.
End of civ world suck totally, but just looking to be ready for a big disaster. Living though a hurricane and seeing that made me want to be prepared
smsff2@reddit
The more variety you have in your food storage, the better. With more options, a larger portion of your daily diet can come from your long-term supplies. As you rotate food through your deep pantry, it becomes a money-saving instrument rather than an expensive hobby. You’re also more likely to have a good amount of food when you need it, and you’ll be less of a burden on emergency relief efforts.
A manual grain mill costs only about $35 on some online marketplaces, and I’m sure it would be a fun tool for kids to play with.
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
For me I have the regular pantry and the emergency food... Was originally readywise but it's terrible and the bags would not seal.. lucky returns to costco and read up.
The wife is weird about having a deep pantry, so me having 200 various #10 cans of 25-30 year food, 200 gallons of water and a box or two of Mountain house is acceptable, so long as she doesn't see it is ok.
Keep med kit and meds and 2 more cases I replace every two years and donate the old ones to the homeless shelter or give to someone camping... My daughter likes to help me with this things :-)
ronniebell@reddit
We have a Country Living grain mill. I have had it for about 17 years and it still grinds grains quite easily (yes, it’s expensive! But worth it). I also just picked up a Wonder Mill Jr. Deluxe, because it can grind masa and I grow flour corn to make cornbread and masa for tortillas and tamales, pupusas, etc. It works fabulously and the Wonder Mill is much more inexpensive than the Country Living grain mill and it is a quality set up also. It just takes a little longer to grind and a little more effort. Put the small children to work on it and they will appreciate your home made bread just that much more.
Low-Feature-3973@reddit
You can hook your corona up to a cordless drill.
I did this when I brewed my own beer and needed to grind my own grains.
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
Sold on this.. at least during the apocalypse, I can continue brewing... I cheat with wart because it's easy 😅
MrD3a7h@reddit
I pray you mean "wort"
chuckisduck@reddit (OP)
You are correct
ForeverCanBe1Second@reddit
If you sprout the wheat and then dehydrate it, it grinds easily in a coffee grinder. Ask me how I know? LOL
Sprouting Wheat Berries and Grinding Your Own Sprouted Flour
Optimal-Archer3973@reddit
Country living grain mill. It is manual but has the ability to run from a belt. Pretty easy to setup a bike frame to run it in a no power scenario, or to add an electric motor or even animal or water power to grind a lot easily. Yes, it is expensive but I have run across them on craigslist and ebay used. They can also grind nuts with a different setup in them.
https://www.countrylivinggrainmills.com/